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baked goods

Cheap and Good: Biscuits and Stuff To Put On ‘Em

biscuits When things get tough..the tough make comfort food. That’s it in a nutshell. And if things get tough in the winter – it’s comfort food on steroids.

Best comfort food comes with stuff in it and gravy or “sauce” (whatever that means at your house) and comes on top of something else. In some people’s homes, it’s noodles or spaghetti…in other people’s homes, it’s on top of biscuits. (more…)

Christmas Fruitcake Fit to Fight For: Dundee Cake

dundeecake This year, Christmas fruitcake has had a powerful competitor in terms of being the go-to punchline as the number of plays on Sarah Palin’s hunting prowess and the loss of poor Rudolph seem to have flooded the internet.

Once this season is over (and, one would hope, Ms. Palin and her hunting rifle will be put away to be played with some other time), fruitcake will again take its place in American humor along with jokes on wives, mothers-in-law, and George W. Bush’s prowess with a bicycle.

Frankly, I’ve never understood America’s seeming equation of fruitcake with the legs of couches, WMD and so forth – why use fruitcake when Lutefisk is at hand? (A Swedish-American co-worker from Minnesota described this traditional Swedish dish to me as “fish flavored soap.”)

Then again, I never had American commercial fruitcake until I was well grown.

I was brought up with my mother’s holiday dainties from the UK: Christmas “hard” pudding (“hard” as in soaked in brandy, lit on fire and served with an alcoholic sauce over the steamed cake-y pudding) and HER fruitcake, which is called Dundee Cake. (more…)

Cheap and Good: Bread – One Dough, Three Ways

bread So, we’re back in the kitchen and we’re going to make dough that we’ll turn into: bread for toast and sandwiches, cinnamon buns, and a sort of finger roll that can be baked in a toaster oven for those folks who are not in the mood to fire up the stove or it’s August and you don’t want to heat up the kitchen. (more…)

Cheap and Good: Bread

bread Probably the only people in the United States who have not noticed the change in prices of baked products are folks who “do Atkins.” Over the past year or so, grain/flour prices pretty much have gone through the roof, affecting everything from meat and eggs to pizza and that humble household commodity, bread. Perhaps now is a good time to learn how to make your own. (more…)

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